Karagga's Palace

Karagga's Palace

Karagga's Palace is "the beginning of a story arc that is going to stretch over several of these content updates and patches." [1] The same power vacuum that enticed the Tion Hegemony into action has caused the Hutt Cartel to break their traditional neutrality. As a faction with a lot of bank and influence behind them, they are a very real contender for control of the Galaxy. But they're not working alone.

Karagga's Palace will be home to four separate encounters. While the traditional boss fights MMO players expect will be present, one encounter will also feature a Towers of Hanoi-style puzzle during the fight.

Lore

Karagga the Unyielding, Supreme Mogul of the Hutt Cartel, has violated the unspoken agreement that has kept a blind eye from the Republic and Empire turned to the Cartel’s operations. Seeing Karagga’s actions as a threat, both the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire send representatives to confront Karagga and force him to stop his aggression.

Karagga’s Palace takes players into the compound of the crime lord. As they fight their way through the countless dangers that await them, players will have to rely on teamwork to defeat the hordes of battle droids, deadly creatures and hardened mercenaries before facing off against the cartel kingpin himself.

Boss Strategies

First Boss: Bonethrasher

Bonethrasher is the first boss encounter of Karagga's Palace. This fight has a small twist in that there is no tanking. Bonethrasher has a random aggro table and cannot be taunted, so your party will have to be on its toes. As Bonethrasher has a forward-facing, cleaving swipe all melee characters will have to fight him from behind. It can be difficult to tell who Bonethrasher is targeting, but when you see Bonethrasher targeting you, it's generally best to kite him to a tank. Also if he turns around to you and faces the rest of the party you will have to run through him to turn him around (conversely your party can reposition itself). Bonethrasher will also do a knockback so make sure to stay away from the acid pools around the edges. Additionally, he will do a smash attack where he targets a person and crushes them into the ground, disabling them and doing a hefty amount of damage. This smash attack will also apply a debuff causing you to take massive damage if he hits you again, so pop cooldowns if you can.

As if having a boss randomly smashing on people isn't annoying enough, Karagga will summon random weak adds onto the battle platform. Bonethrasher will immediately charge this add and attempt to eat it. If successful he will receive a buff that makes him do increased damage. When you hear Karagga yell stuff out keep an eye out for the add that will fall. It will be surrounded with a red aura, so target it quickly and down it.

Lastly, at around 50% Karagga will have his beast master release two champion-level Manka cats. Your tank will have to grab these and your group burn them down quickly. On hard/nightmare modes, it's often easier to CC these adds until Bonethrasher is downed to avoid the enrage timer.

As most raid/operations bosses Bonethrasher is on an enrage timer so DPS is incredibly important. It is helpful for your tanks to switch to a DPS stance for some extra damage, it could make a huge difference. (As an aside, keep one tank in a tanking stance until the Manka Cats are dead, then he/she can switch.)

Having at least one Sorcerer/Sage healer will be helpful as they can drop their AoE healing pool for those who have to stay in melee range of the boss.

If you are knocked back near the edge the boss has the possibility of resetting the fight, so it is extremely important to avoid edges in this fight. Even if he does not reset, you will die.

Second Boss: Jarg and Sorno, the Bounty Hunters

The second boss encounter of Karagga's Palace is a fight against two Bounty Hunters, Jarg and Sorno. This fight follows some similar MMO-tropes in that there are two bosses that must be tanked by two different tanks and killed within seconds of each other, or you could face a wipe. It's similar to the Romulo and Julianne encounter from Karazhan in World of Warcraft or the Twins fight in LOTRO.

As there are two bosses you will need two tanks and have two groups. Your weaker tank (if there is a significant difference in your tanks) should be on Sorno who is the healing type boss. You should also have your melee DPS focus on Sorno as Jarg has lots of AoE melee-ranged damage. Conversely, your strongest tank and ranged DPS should be on Jarg. If possible, it is also helpful to have an Assassin/Shadow tank on Jarg as they have more elemental resistance and will take less damage from Jarg's AoE flame attack.

When the fighting starts have each tank run to one side and taunt their specific boss. As they are range, it will take a few moments for the bosses to jump into melee range. Once they have aggro, and are separated, your respective DPS teams (ranged or melee) should target their boss and begin burning him down. Periodically, either Jarg or Sorno will employ their own special mechanic. Sorno will periodically jump up to the rafters and begin shooting missiles randomly throughout the room. As with many mechanics of this type, watch the ground for the indicator and move away. When Sorno flies up, a small carbonizer probe droid will spawn and target the person tanking Jarg and freeze him/her in carbonite. When this happens, Jarg will jump to Sorno's tank and attack. When the probe spawns, all DPS should immediately jump to it and destroy it. Once destroyed Jarg will jump back to his tank and Sorno will eventually land and the fight continues as normal.

Alternatively, Jarg will sometimes employ his special mechanic. Both he and Sorno will jump to the center and Jarg will begin to spew fire from his flamethrowers in a wide AoE while Sorno will grapple random party members in. It is imperative that you run out when you are pulled in.

Your parties should continue to burn down both bosses as quickly as possible until at least one boss reaches 20%. At that time you will need to assess how close each boss is until death and either redirect DPS or slow it down so that you can ensure that you will kill them within seconds of each other.

Third Boss: Foreman Crusher

Foreman Crusher is the third boss encounter in Karagga's Palace. This is a one-tank fight. Foreman Crusher can do a lot of damage so a well-geared tank will be necessary. As with the first encounter, Foreman Crusher does a frontal cleave, so make sure to attack from behind unless you are main-tanking.

When the fight begins you will see Foreman Crusher being held down by adds holding chains. Have your main tank charge in and grab Foreman Crusher while the rest of the operations group quickly mops up the adds. As soon as the adds are dead focus full DPS onto the boss as he needs to die as quickly as possible to avoid enrage (which cannot be tanked through). This fight can be taxing on your main tank as he/she will have the bulk of the responsibility on his/her shoulders.

Periodically Foreman Crusher will enter a frenzy. When this happens his damage will increase and he will begin hitting much faster. This phase lasts for approximately 15 seconds and can be extremely difficult to heal through, so your tank has a few options. The first would be to have a Sniper or Gunslinger in the Main Tanks group as well as a Marauder or Sentinel. When Frenzy activates, have your Sniper/Gunslinger position himself near the tank and deploy their AoE shield. Make sure the Sniper/Gunslinger is behind the boss so as not to get cleave damage. For the next instance of Frenzy have the Marauder/Sentinel deploy their extra defense buff. With the right gear, timing, and heals the tank will be able to withstand the frenzy. Alternately, have a Marauder/Sentinel in your main tanks group and when the boss enters Frenzy have that person use their skill to boost the party's run speed allowing the tank to run away and kite the boss. This strategy works very well with Assassin/Shadow tanks as they can also use their movement speed ability for a temporary boost of speed away from the boss at the time.

After the frenzy is over the tank will have to re-establish agro and then the DPS can continue. Silver-ranked adds will also periodically spawn throughout the fight. The rest of the group should burn them down as quickly as possible.

Once your tank establishes a solid way to survive the frenzy the fight is relatively easy and becomes a DPS race to avoid the boss's enrage timer.

Fourth Boss: G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator

The fourth boss in Karagga's Palace is the G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator which uses the Towers of Hanoi puzzle game as an integral mechanic.

The G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator is inactive until the puzzle is completed for the first time which allows ample time for you to play with the puzzle and position your group optimally.

The ideal setup for this encounter is to have 3 ranged DPS on the upper platform to work the puzzle and 2 tanks for the boss. A mix of healers and ranged/melee DPS should make up the remainder. The remainder of the group can stand between the center and right upper platforms on the ground about 2-3 meters back from the conveyor that G4-B3 stands on to avoid the knockback and the proximity mines (more on this later).

G4-B3 begins this encounter with a stack of incoming damage reduction buffs (10) that solving the puzzle will remove. The ranged DPS on the upper platform will need to move the puzzle pieces around to solve the puzzle (3 legs on the bottom, 2 legs in the middle and the single leg on top). This will activate a fire control button that, when pressed, will fire a flame jet onto G4-B3 and remove his incoming damage reduction buff (and start the fight the first time it is activated). Note: your melee will want to remain in the hashed yellow markings to avoid taking damage from the flame jet (it can one-shot a tank on hard and nightmare modes). You will need good communication for the puzzle solvers in order to ensure the puzzle is solved quickly and that melee are out of range when the jet fires.

During this encounter, G4-B3 will apply a stacking armor reduction debuff to the tank. This is why it is important to have 2 tanks for this encounter. Once the stacks reach about 5-7, depending on how well geared your tank is and how good your healers are, you will want to swap tanks. After about 10 seconds, the stacks will drop off and the tanks can swap aggro again.

During this phase, the fight is a pretty standard tank-and-spank. G4-B3 will randomly do an AoE knockback which is a nuisance. He will also randomly target a member of the group and fire a rocket at them. The target will know because the character will have a large yellow target on them. You'll want to move away from other people because the rocket does splash damage and a knockdown when it hits.

Your ranged DPS should generally gather on the center platform sticking out into the room during this phase. This allows them to target and hit G4-B3 at any of the 3 jets.

Periodically, proximity mines will be deployed. Once the announcement is made, the ranged DPS should move back to their puzzle stations to solve the puzzle for the next jet (you cannot fire in the same place twice in a row). A proximity mine will spawn in front of each puzzle station, so burn it down so you can operate the puzzle. The rest of the mines can be ignored (just don't get too close as they hit for a decent amount when they explode and will debuff you for more as well).

G4-B3 will also spawn stun droids near him. These must be killed as quick as possible because they will stun the tank (and occasionally DPS or healers).

On normal mode, the optimal rotation is to move G4-B3 between the right and middle jets to minimize movement. All 3 jets do the same flame jet buff removal.

There are some differences in this fight on hard and nightmare modes. In addition to the incoming damage reduction buff, G4-B3 also gains a damage increase buff. Also, the 3 jets do different things. The starting (right) jet does the same flame jet debuff removal as normal mode (removes both his incoming damage reduction buff and his damage increase buff). The middle jet now magnetizes G4-B3 causing all the proximity mines to be pulled to him. The left jet fires a frost jet that removes G4-B3's incoming damage reduction buff, but not his damage increase buff.

The optimal rotation for hard/nightmare mode is to move him from right to left and back, skipping the middle jet as it will not remove any of his buffs.

There is also one key difference for 16-man. In this mode, the same person who fired the jet cannot be the first person to move a puzzle piece for the next solve. So, you'll want to either rotate positions for solving, or have a fourth person on the upper platform to be the first to click after firing.

Lastly, like most bosses, G4-B3 does have an enrage timer. For normal mode, it is at 10 minutes, for hard mode 8 minutes and 6 minutes in nightmare mode.

Fifth Boss: Karagga the Unyielding

Karagga the Unyielding is the last boss, ironically, in Karagga's Palace.

Basically, there are 6 things that will happen during this fight.

The first thing Karagga will do is place a gravity well on a random group member. This will draw in several nearby players as well. If you get dragged in, run away as fast as you can because it will do a lot of damage to you. If you are the targeted player, you'll be rooted while the bomb ticks and explodes. It doesn't hit hard for the targeted player, so you should be able to survive it if you are above 50% health. The main nuisance about this is that it will interrupt healers if they are dragged in.

Karagga will also spawn exploding mouse droids. They don't hit hard (3-5k damage), but DPS should kill these quick when they spawn to avoid the group taking unnecessary damage. AoE damage/stun/slow is good for this as they are normal mobs and can be stunned/slowed. They will spawn right under Karagga, so popping AoE right on Karagga as they spawn should take care of them quickly.

The third thing Karagga does is a random targeted spike attack where spikes will come up from the floor and hit random people. It will interrupt casting, but doesn't hit hard.

Next there is a frontal cone missile salvo that hits for 2-3k on everyone in a cone in front of Karagga. This can be avoided by having the tank face Karagga to the side of the group (don't face him to the group or directly away as he has AoE attacks in both front and rear).

Karagga has a laser beam attack that he will do on whoever has aggro (should be the tank) that hits for around 5k per tick, so the healers will want to watch for this.

The last thing he does is the main mechanic for this fight. Karagga will spew oil from the rear of his droid body and light it on fire. There is also a conal AoE damage that accompanies this, but no-one should be behind him anyway. Obviously, you'll want to avoid this. This happens regularly and the tank will want to move Karagga once this happens. The best way to move Karagga is around the outside of his arena and back and forth in a serpentine fashion. Be sure you have a path marked out because the flames do not go out until Karagga is dead and it is possible to trap the group.

All ranged and the healers should gather in the center of his arena on the mesh floor, but spread out a bit. This gives the tank plenty of space to work with to move Karagga around, while still allowing the rest of the group to target and hit him no matter where he is.

This fight will challenge your healers because Karagga has many attacks that will interrupt casting. The non-healers should be aware of this and pop cooldowns and medpacs as necessary to help the healers out.